$300 million East Bay shopping center opens with big food...

1of11Home furnishing store West Elm joins its parent company, Williams-Sonoma, to be among the major retailers signing leases to open at the new City Center Bishop Ranch outdoor shopping mall in San Ramon.Photo: Photos by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

2of11Claire and Robert Ellis relax near a fountain in the courtyard while shopping at the City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

3of11Athleta is one of the new businesses opening at the new City Center Bishop Ranch outdoor shopping mall in San Ramon.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

4of11Fieldwork Brewing Co. co-founder Barry Braden pours beer in his taproom on the opening day of the new City Center Bishop Ranch outdoor shopping mall in San Ramon, Calif. on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

5of11Trader sells adventure clothing for men at the new City Center Bishop Ranch.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

11of11Amy Stanley-Meyer descends a staircase while exploring the new City Center Bishop Ranch outdoor shopping mall in San Ramon, Calif. on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

The sprawling Bishop Ranch office park in San Ramon is the home of corporate giants Chevron, IBM and SAP. Now, its 30,000 office workers will be joined by trendy food, drink and retail offerings from the likes of the Slanted Door, Boba Guys and Fieldwork Brewing.

It’s the culmination of Bishop Ranch owner Sunset Development’s efforts to bring elements of the city to the suburbs. Unlike a traditional enclosed suburban mall with acres of ground-level parking, City Center has separate entrances to retailers that are reminiscent of an urban street, arranged around a central courtyard. Parking and service entrances are hidden in upper floors.

About 75 percent of the 300,000-square-foot center is leased, and Sunset Development expects the rest of the space to be filled by early next year, totaling around 70 stores. Stores such as Starbucks, Equinox and Williams-Sonoma, along with its sister brands Pottery Barn and West Elm, have signed leases.

Barbara Meehan is one of the first customers to shop at the West Elm home furnishing store at Bishop Ranch, the new concept mall in San Ramon.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Another centerpiece is a 1,000-seat high-end movie theater and food center called the Lot, which will have 10 cinema screens with food service, along with a separate bar and restaurant space.

“We really see ourselves more as a boutique hotel. We run it as so — instead of rooms, we have seats and auditoriums, with a call button to call the waiter,” said Carlos Wellman, co-owner of the Lot.

City Center is one of the largest Bay Area retail projects in years, and a major investment in the troubled retail sector, which has seen dozens of major bankruptcies in recent years as shoppers move online. But the concentration of highly paid employees and residents in San Ramon, along with a dearth of eating and shopping options in the Tri-Valley area, means the project is drawing dozens of tenants, according to Sunset Development.

“People don’t want to be in a nondescript suburban office building,” said Alexander Mehran Jr., president of Sunset Development. “Because of how much office we own, it’s worth it.”

Asking rents range from $75 to $100 per square foot, along with some revenue sharing with tenants. That’s less than top retail rents in nearby Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, which can exceed $130 per square foot, according to brokerage John Cumbelich & Associates.

Fieldwork Brewing began selling 18 beers on tap Thursday, with 200 seats. Barry Braden, owner of Fieldwork Brewing, said he knew that San Ramon and the Tri-Valley area were thirsting for a new shopping nexus.

“It’s a place maker. It’s going to be a real destination, I think, for not only for this community but on a wider scale as well,” said Braden. Fieldwork Brewing started in Berkeley and now has six locations in Northern California.

Fieldwork Brewing Co. opened a new taproom at City Center Bishop Ranch.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

The Tri-Valley’s job growth rate has outpaced the rest of the Bay Area, and the area is well educated and affluent, with 60 percent of residents having a college degree, according to the Bay Area Council, a business group.

Those demographics are a boost for City Center, but the mall’s focus on urban design and local boutiques gives it an additional edge over older malls, said John Cumbelich, founder of John Cumbelich & Associates.

“They’ve been able to craft a tenant mix that stays away from what I’ll call formulaic brands ... that are selling something that you can easily get online,” said Cumbelich, whose firm represented Roam Artisan Burgers in a lease at City Center.

One of City Center’s biggest coups was luring the celebrated Vietnamese restaurant the Slanted Door to expand there. The San Francisco mainstay, whose first location is in the Ferry Building, will open in San Ramon in December.

Charles Phan, the Slanted Door’s founder, was struck by the accessible design of City Center, with its individual entrances for each retailer.

“I just can’t stand malls,” Phan said. “I’m directionally challenged, so I get lost. If you look at this building. ... It’s very straightforward.”

Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.

He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

He is the author of “Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports," a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.